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Metabolic activity of marine microorganisms

What are the factors controlling the fate of organic matter used by microorganisms?

Organic matter is a heterogeneous mixture of compounds, and I have an interest in determining which organic compounds microorganisms use to build bacterial biomass and which compounds are converted to carbon dioxide. My past research included identifying metabolically active microorganisms and the factors controlling the distribution of active and inactive bacterial cells in a variety of ecosystems. This research has broad implications for how organic matter is cycled through marine food webs because it connects the consumption of organic carbon with the in situ microbial community.

Publications

del Giorgio P.A., R. Condon, T. Bouvier, K. Longnecker, C. Bouvier, E.B. Sherr, J.M. Gasol (2011). Coherent patterns in bacterial growth, growth efficiency, and leucine metabolism along a northeastern Pacific inshore-offshore transect. Limnology and Oceanography 56: 1-16

Longnecker, K., M.W. Lomas, and B.A.S. Van Mooy (2010). Abundance and diversity of heterotrophic bacterial cells assimilating phosphate in the subtropical North Atlantic Ocean. Environmental Microbiology 12: 2773-2782.

Longnecker, K., M.J. Wilson, E.B. Sherr, and B.F. Sherr (2010). Effect of top-down control on cell-specific activity and diversity of active marine bacterioplankton. Aquatic Microbial Ecology. 58:153-165.

Sherr, E.B., B. F. Sherr, and K. Longnecker (2006). Distribution of bacterial abundance and cell-specific nucleic acid content in the Northeast Pacific Ocean. Deep-Sea Research I 53: 713-725.

Longnecker, K., B.F. Sherr, and E.B. Sherr (2006). Variation in cell-specific rates of leucine and thymidine incorporation by high and low nucleic acid content marine bacteria off the Oregon coast. Aquatic Microbial Ecology. 43: 113-125.

Longnecker, K., D.S. Homen, E.B. Sherr and B.F. Sherr (2006). Similar community structure of biosynthetically active prokaryotes across a range of ecosystem trophic states. Aquatic Microbial Ecology.42: 265-276.

Longnecker, K., B. F. Sherr and E. B. Sherr (2005). Activity and phylogenetic diversity of bacterial cells with high and low nucleic acid content and electron transport system activity in an upwelling ecosystem. Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 71: 7737-7749.

Partners

My research on microbial metabolic activity began with my Ph.D. dissertation at Oregon State University where I was advised by Evelyn and Barry Sherr. I did some additional work identifying metabolically active cells at WHOI with Ben Van Mooy.